Post dated - written first night back in the UK

So I’m back home, back to using a Mac, back to autumn, back to missing Kate and back to, well, back to Britain.
It’s been one hell of a deployment, all in all. I’ve seen some things that less than 1% of the UK have seen, I’ve travelled a LONG way, I’ve seen animals in their native environment, learnt lots of things about using a SLR camera, met a wonderful girl and had to leave her 8000 miles away, and have now got experience of flying in a number of different types of aircraft.
Would I go back? Hell yes. Even without Kate, I’d love to go back south; with her there it becomes more imperative.
Am I glad to be home? Yes and no. For one thing I’m not home yet, I’m at my parents. This is the first time I’ve felt this, that my parents house is not my home. I’m always welcome here but this is their house, their home, not mine. It’s great to see them and Matt, Becky and Ellen (who loved her penguin) but I want to see my friends, I want to get back to my flat and relax in my own (rented) place. Don’t get me wrong, it IS wonderful to be here and they are brilliant but a week or two here is going to be enough.
I’m starting to see what Twoflower meant in Light Fantastic when he said “you haven’t travelled until you’ve got back home.” Looking back through the 2129 photos I’ve taken, I stripped them down to “just” 437 good ones and some of them are really good, I won’t be short of good images for backgrounds for a while, that’s for certain. I’m going to get one of those digital picture frames and load the good ones onto it, but that’ll have to wait until the next pay check at least.
Obviously the biggest down side of coming home is leaving my girlfriend (still feels weird to be able to say that after all this time) and enter into a very long distance relationship. We’re hoping it will work but both of know that the distance is very large, four time zones and totally different worldviews. So we’ll see how it goes.
It will be good to see friends and familiar places again though, and to be able to drive my own car when I want, where I want and above 40 mph (!) will be fantastic. As it is I’m still a bit jet-lagged so I’m going to reset my body clock tomorrow and head into town, which is about10 times bigger than Stanley, and then maybe Cheltenham, which is almost 100 times Stanley.
Pubs and real beer are going to be good, having to pay more than £3 for a 6 drink round isn’t. And yes, for the guys in London, that would have been an expensive round. If you consider that a double of Bells was 16p in the mess, more than £3 for a single is going to hurt. How much it would cost in the capitol I don’t want to think…
I had some bad days down there, not all of them hangover based. There were a couple of days when my forecasts just wouldn’t settle, some days I just wanted to be home, and some days that it felt like I was really up the arse of the world. But not many, and most of them were at the start, before I found my feet and made the friendships and acquaintances that I did.
Flying over South Georgia I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d want to be, although I could think of some people I’d want to be there with. Some of my friends back here would have really loved it down there, Tasha and Chris especially.
I definitely drank too much and didn’t do enough exercise, but I’m surprised how little I’ve actually changed. Moustache aside, of course. I’m going to get my dad to take a few pictures of my with the south Atlantic facial fuzz still attached then it’s going!
Did improve my bowling though. I’ve also learned an huge amount of new weather skills as well. After all, I’ve been working at a level above my normal work standard with minimal information so getting back to Lossie with all the kit that is normal for a met office will be a welcome change of pace.
Actually, that’s another point, we’re changing at Lossie to have a regional unit as well as the local station one; and when I get back up we’re moving back into the office on the day I go home with the regional unit stand-up two weeks later. Joy.
Oh, and Richard, thanks for the great comment, I must say that was a really lovely poetic turn of phrase. And you're right, living on a mountain would be easier but I've tried that, the wind chaffs terribly. ..